The present invention relates to an easily operable automatic telephone answering/recording apparatus and a method of operating the same, the apparatus being capable of automatically responding to an incoming call and recording a message of a calling party.
Conventional automatic telephone answering/recording apparatuses have both outgoing and incoming message tapes. According to a typical conventional automatic telephone answering/recording apparatus, an outgoing message from the outgoing message tape is sent to a caller when an incoming call is received from the caller, and thereafter an incoming message is recorded on the incoming message tape. In this manner, the outgoing and incoming message tapes are alternately used, resulting in complex button operation. When a user uses this automatic telephone answering/recording apparatus, he may feel difficulty which prevents the widespread application of the apparatus. Typical conventional automatic telephone answering/recording apparatuses have switch operation panels shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, respectively. In each of the switch operation panels, four or more buttons are arranged, including a REC or recording button for recording an outgoing message on the outgoing message tape, a PLAY button for playing the outgoing message tape, a REW or rewind button for rewinding the outgoing message tape, and an FF button for fast-forwarding the outgoing message. Furthermore, at least two other operation buttons (RECORD and PLAY) are required when an endless tape look is used as the outgoing message tape. An open-reel type cassette tape is sometimes generally used as the outgoing message tape in place of an endless tape. In order to operate this tape, at least four or five buttons are required including a REC or PLAY button, a STOP button, a REW button and an FF button. In addition, at least one or two rotary switches or pushbuttons are required to set the apparatus in an automatic position (i.e., automatic answering/recording mode). When the general user operates these buttons, he must feel difficulty which prevents popular use by most people or housewives.